Why is a gypsy (On a windlass) so named?

[cmedsailor]

i would choose labourer to translate ERGATIS.

Well I don't know the difference between labourer and worker but my Greek is definately better thank English!!

 

[Deleted member 36384]

.... someone claiming the term is insulting (and very serious they were about this too!) .... of the term Gypsy as applied to anchor windlass ......

There would have been apoplexy if you explained that they gypsy winch could be used to set up a Niger Rig.

It's unfortunate that this term is still used widely in the industry that I work in.

 

[Sandyman]

There would have been apoplexy if you explained that they gypsy winch could be used to set up a Niger Rig.

It's unfortunate that this term is still used widely in the industry that I work in.

Blimey OldBoots you'll have the Chief Stoker after you. Not allows to say N***r.

Clearly you need re-training in PC correctness

 

[Leonidas]

Actually that's what the windlass is called and as Greek i would choose labourer to translate ERGATIS, the gypsy is called a female pig (in fact it means nasty whore''skrofa") and the hook we use to secure the chain is a bitch-''skilla'' cause it bites the chain and holds it.

These are the terms commonly used but still it does not answer the question.
As far as as I am aware, the inventor of the gypsy wheel was a certain Lt Barbsten a French naval lieutenant who designed and cast a bronze disc that had glyphes i.e. equespaced carvings, designed to accommodate the chain links. He called this invention Disque Glyphe'. Now translate this into English: "Glyphsed wheel" and try to get a British sailor to pronounce it quickly. I believe that Gypsy is probably (I put some emphasis on the word probably as I am not an etymologist) the degrading of the word glyph (i.e carving eg hieroglyphics etc) , which by the way is a Greek word. Greeks have always a word for it and in the case of the gypsy wheel, we call it "Alyseliktron" which translates to : chain pulling device.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Dunno if it's right, but that's the best sounding explanation so far!

 

[Leonidas]

Well I don't know the difference between labourer and worker but my Greek is definately better thank English!!

The labourer gets paid !

 

[FishyInverness]

^ What Rigger said, I like that explanation!

 

[Leighb]

It is interesting that the gypsy in a windlass may perhaps have got it's English name from a failure of blokes here to pronounce French.

It is also believed that the (Romany) Gipsies were so called because in earlier times they were thought to have originated in Egypt.

Drifting slightly, the "Jerusalem" artichoke, which is neither an artichoke, nor does it originate from Jerusalem, probably got it's name due to the inability of Covent Garden porters to pronounce the word "Girasole" which is Italian for Sunflower of which family they are a variety.

 

[electrosys]

Eygptians are known to have used windlasses in the construction of their pyramids.

The word 'gypsy' was used to describe a travelling person originating from Eygpt.

Hence the term 'gypsy' on a windlass may have originated from those who brought this technology over to the West ?

 

[Porthandbuoy]

The Sailors Wordbook by Admiral W. H. Smyth @ mid 1800s doesn't mention Gypsy at all, but does refer to Gyp.
A Gyp being "A strong gasp for breath, like a fish just taken out of the water."

Could gypsy be lower deck slang for the windlass, in the context of the effort required to haul up the anchor leaving you gasping for breath?

Just a thought.